Hearing Jeanne's words, the weight in Crownslayer's heart finally lifted. In that instant, a sharp pain surged from her abdomen; the agony she hadn't noticed before became even more severe now that she had relaxed.
Jeanne caught Crownslayer, unable to help but marvel at how light this girl was! She must have deliberately controlled her weight to train in the arts of an assassin, making her entire body feel as light as a feather. After all, not everyone is King Hassan, capable of completing a perfect assassination while wearing heavy armor and wielding a greatsword. Most assassins require a lithe body—like Jack the Ripper, for instance. (Laughs~)
"Ugh... thanks. You don't need to support me, I'm not that fragile. I can manage to walk back on my own."
"Stop nitpicking over such things. Let's hurry up and find a place to bandage that wound. You don't actually plan on meeting the children looking like this, do you? You're covered in blood; you'll scare them."
Looking at Crownslayer, who intended to push through her injuries to walk back, Jeanne did not listen and stop helping her, even when Crownslayer intentionally revealed the Originium on her wrist to imply she was an Infected.
Seeing Jeanne's firm attitude, Crownslayer knew she couldn't resist. She could only follow Jeanne to find a spot to re-bandage her reopened wound. They found a relatively clean area, and Jeanne helped unwrap the bandages around her abdomen, taking out the supplies she carried with her to re-dress the injury.
For some unknown reason, as Jeanne looked at Crownslayer exposing her belly to her, she couldn't help but recall someone saying that canines reveal their bellies to their masters as a sign of goodwill. Once that thought took hold, she couldn't look at Crownslayer the same way again.
During the process, Jeanne learned that the three little ones were children adopted by Azazel. However, because of the city district separation, they could no longer find their way back to the clinic. Not long after Crownslayer arrived in this city, she had run into the three of them. The children would occasionally visit her, and within a few days, the four of them became quite close.
A while back, she planned to take revenge on her enemy during the district separation, as even the tightest defenses would have loopholes then. Moreover, the city lacked sufficient manpower, and no one was willing to defend against sudden emergencies.
But she hadn't expected there to be military police secretly monitoring her target. Crownslayer was surrounded, treated as an accomplice helping the family escape. She had gone through a battle and, fortunately, managed to retreat successfully. However, she had been wounded in a moment of carelessness and had to hide in that warehouse to recover.
As for the children, they had discovered she was injured and were bringing her medicine when the city blocks began to move. Now, they too were unable to find their way back to the clinic.
"So, you're helping those three children find a way back to Azazel? Block migration isn't exactly rare, is it? Does no one know the way back?"
"It's not that simple. Azazel is hidden very deeply and frequently changes its location for fear of someone finding its exact coordinates. Perhaps some among the Infected know how to find it, but as an outsider, I have no way."
As she spoke, the light in Crownslayer's eyes dimmed. Only at a time like this did she realize that to this city, she had truly become a complete stranger.
Heh, to think that a child born in this city has unknowingly become an 'outsider' in its eyes. How ironic.
"That's a coincidence then. We're also heading to Azazel; we can give you a lift."
Jeanne replied casually, but this made Crownslayer somewhat suspicious. How could it be such a coincidence? This person saved her life, and now they were heading to the same place and could give her a ride...
"Why are you going to Azazel? Aren't you a non-Infected? That place is a clinic for the Infected. Given the current situation, they probably won't be very welcoming to non-Infected..."
Crownslayer asked cautiously. In truth, she felt a bit ashamed; treating her life-saver with such suspicion was rather ungrateful. But she had promised to bring the children back. Facing such a suspicious character who seemed to possess high combat strength, she had to find a way to test her, no matter how dangerous it was.
Jeanne looked up at Crownslayer, who awkwardly turned her head away. But in that gaze, there was a mix of tension, fear, and hope—there was even a trace of anticipation. Crownslayer truly hoped in her heart that all of this was just her habitual suspicion, that she was just being paranoid. If that were the case, she would feel much better.
Jeanne smiled. She naturally understood Crownslayer's thoughts, but she didn't feel angry. On the contrary, she perfectly understood why Crownslayer was acting this way. Because she and the children were Infected, that reason alone was enough to erase the vast majority of goodwill in this world—not to mention this was an Ursus city where prejudice against the Infected was extreme!
"I need to go there to find a friend! She's an Infected, and she should be waiting for me at Azazel right now."
Hearing Jeanne's words, Crownslayer let out a sigh of relief. Although there was no evidence to prove it, her intuition told her that Jeanne was telling the truth and could be trusted. Back when Crownslayer was learning her skills in Siracusa, her mentor had told her about the importance of intuition. For people like them, intuition was sometimes more important than sight. When you cannot distinguish the truth of a matter, trusting your intuition is the best choice.
By now, the two had finished resting and reorganizing. Jeanne supported Crownslayer as they walked toward the warehouse. Quite a bit of time had passed; she wondered how Lemuen was doing with the three children. But there shouldn't be any problems. Hadn't Lemuen looked after her sister since they were young? Could these three children be harder to manage than her own sister?
"Even if you aren't afraid of the Infected, you should still be careful here. If the military police find out, you'll be considered an Infected too. Once you're sent to the mining districts, it's all the same anyway."
Crownslayer looked at Jeanne, her heart still full of doubt. In the harsh environment of Ursus, was there actually a "fool" who would seek out an Infected to be friends?
"Don't worry, I'm quite confident in my ability to protect myself."
"That's not what I meant... never mind."
Seeing that Jeanne clearly intended to gloss over the matter, Crownslayer didn't say anything more. Besides, the most important thing right now was the condition of the three little ones; everything else could wait until later.
Shortly after the two had walked away, Kal'tsit suddenly appeared on the street, looking thoughtfully in the direction they had left.